Monday, June 3, 2013

There is no greater joy than serving a mission

What a wonderful
week. I am just HAPPY! There is no greater joy. I LOVE my
life! I wish I could put into words the happiness that I feel. I
have never felt anything like it!

First off, I got my
first beso from a man. There was no time to explain that we can´t kiss
men. So I got 2 kisses, one on each cheek.

We had the leadership
meeting to learn more about our job as Hna. Leaders and did not find out
much. Since we are the first, nobody really knows what to do. We
are kind of all going to learn about it together. So that was not a very
comforting meeting. But in my last email to President I told him a little
about how I was feeling. He told me that I was called to be an Hna.
Trainer because I am willing to work, obedient, a good example and
positive. He also told me I have more of a natural ability to lead than I
think.

That really made me
feel better, and I don´t know anything about my ability but I KNOW with God´s
help, I will be just fine. Sometimes I stress about it, but usually I
have a deep sense of peace. Basically what we have to do is do
intercambios (exchanges) with the hermanas in our zone. So I will be
doing intercambios about once a week.

We had a really good
zone conference on wednesday and I had to give 2 talks. One was
a 10 min talk on patience and the other was 15 minutes about how we can be
successful missionaries and this one I gave with another Hna. Trainer so it
wasn´t as bad.

It should be known
that these talks were both given in Spanish. I was nervous, but not
nearly as nervous as I was to give my farewel talk. I love who I am
becoming. Before the mission talking in public in ENGLISH was
horrifying. Now, talking in SPANISH makes me nervous but is not horrifying.
Also President and Hna. Jackson showed up and told us that someone in Barrio 5
had arranged for all the missionaries to have A&W ROOTBEER! OH it was
delicious!

I SAW PAULINO. I
hope you all remember my favorite Investigator (is it bad to
have favorites??), Paulino, from Leganes. He came to Pavones to
come to the English classes here. We were in the capilla waiting for some
rain to stop, and he comes walking through the doors! I was SO happy to
see him! He isn´t progressing in the gospel very well, which makes me sad,
but I tried to commit him to read the book of Mormon every day. I hope he
does. He said he was going to be going to English class, so I hope I see
him more often!

I ate the worlds
hottest pepper. Probably not the worlds hottest, but it was hot. It
hurt my whole head. My mouth was on fire and my ears were hurting for a
good 15 minutes. Am I crazy if I enjoyed every minute and have eaten the
pepper again since the first time?

We gave the Noche de
Hogar for the ward this week. We talked about the Holy Ghost and did an
activity where one person was blindfolded, one person was the Holy Ghost and
EVERYONE else was the world. The Holy Ghost had to guide the person back
to their chair while the world cat-called, whistled and made noises. It
was a cool demonstration of how we have to listen to the still small voice and
be where we can hear it.

Saturday, I hit 10
months in the mission! I love the mission, the joy it gives me, and who
it is making me and helping me become. I hate hitting my month marks,
they come so fast.

I had a dream this
week, that I came home from the mission, and I landed in America and just stood
still, and dazed for a few minutes. Then I just started bawling. Then
President Medley took my chapa (name tag) away. It was a horrible
dream. More like a nightmare. haha.

I know it will come
someday, but I´m going to make the most of the 8 months I have left! I
love the mission and the happiness I have felt. Sometimes I get a huge
grin on my face and think, I am a missionary! I am a representative of
Jesus Christ! I have the truth! I have the best blessings and the fullness
of Christ’s gospel and I am growing closer and closer to him! It just
doesnt get better than that. If you can´t go or have already gone on
a mission, the best way to feel the way i feel is to serve and share the gospel
with everyone you can, and to study and love the scriptures!